Many medical procedures require puncturing of the skin, and sometimes underlying tissues, of an animal or human subject. For example, a sharp lancet tip is commonly used to puncture the subject's skin at a lancing site to obtain a sample of blood, interstitial fluid, or other body fluid, as for example in blood glucose monitoring by diabetics and in blood typing and screening applications.
In some instances, a person must periodically sample their blood for multiple testing throughout the day or week. Because re-use of a lancet can result in infection or spread of blood-borne contaminants, persons requiring repeated testing often must carry around multiple lancets that are separately loaded into a lancing device for each sampling. This can be inconvenient and may lead to reduced compliance with a prescribed test regimen.
Accordingly, it has been discovered that needs exist for an improved lancing device capable of carrying out multiple sampling procedures without the need for separately loading individual lancets. It has also been discovered that needs exist for a convenient, disposable multi-lancet cartridge that can be loaded into a multi-use lancing device for carrying out multiple sampling procedures, and then be removed and replaced when fully or partially spent or when replacement is otherwise desired. It is to the provision of an improved sampling device and cartridge meeting these and other needs that the present invention is primarily directed.